During recent years, considerable effort and money has been expended in developing splash guards or mud flaps to be utilized with large truck-type vehicles. The primary objective of these efforts is to develop a splash guard which will prevent, or at least significantly reduce, the direct dispersion onto or into the path of other vehicles of water droplets created by the vehicle's wheels when traversing wet pavements. The objective is to also attempt controlling the relatively fine mist that is consequently developed when the water droplets initially generated are intercepted by splash guards which are generally required equipment on trucks of the otherwise open wheel type, i.e. absence of protective fenders. It is the mist formed by small size water droplets that is is readily dispersed laterally of the vehicle and often attains a density sufficient to severely restrict vision of the drivers in vehicles travelling parallel to a truck-type vehicle.
An example of one previous attempt to develop a splash guard is that illustrated and described in U.S. Pat. No. 3,285,624 issued to H. S. Aber et al on Nov. 15, 1966. This patent illustrates the twofold approach of attempting to combat the problem of a splash guard sailing or floating in the airstream and thereby reducing its effectiveness as well as the problem of attempting to collect the water droplets that are thrown upwardly and rearwardly from the truck wheels. The Aber patent discloses a structure wherein a sheet-form panel of either a rubber or plastic material is formed with a plurality of vertically extending V-shaped ribs that are arranged in groups at each side of the panel. The objective of those ribs is to collect the water droplets between adjacent ribs and prevent their lateral or transverse movement and to thereby reduce the degree to which those droplets may be further dispersed in the formation of a mist of relatively small sized water droplets. The specific rib conformations disclosed in the Aber patent are smooth, planar surfaced walls which have been found to be less effective than desired in performing the functions of collecting the water droplets and preventing their dispersion in a lateral or transverse direction with respect to the splash guard.
Another example of an attempt to develop a splash guard designed to control the dispersion of water droplets is disclosed in British Pat. No. 1101143 granted to K. D. Anderson which was published Jan. 31, 1968 and based on an application which was filed Jan. 20, 1965. The structure disclosed in that patent comprised a sheet-form panel having a plurality of conically shaped projections formed on a surface of the panel and projecting outwardly therefrom. The projections were arranged in a pattern where the projections were essentially aligned in vertical rows with the projections in adjacent rows being longitudinally offset to result in the projections being located in displaced relationship as between the rows. While the providing of conical projections of this nature improved the ability and capability of a splash guard to collect water droplets that were intercepted by the guard, the effectiveness of such a guard was also found to be less than that desired in controlling the generation and dispersion of a fine mist spray. Water droplets intercepted by the panel and incident to surfaces of the projections retained a strong tendency to be deflected or diverted in a transverse direction across the surface of the panel and could move along the channels that were formed by the projections, although those channels were oriented at an angle with respect to the transverse axis of the guard. The effect was that the water droplets were dispersed and tended to travel in a general transverse direction toward the lateral sides of the guard where they could and did exit and thus travel into the path of adjacent or passing vehicles even though flanges were provided at each side to attempt containment of the laterally dispersing mist.